Three drivers are suspended

Press, 24 March 1980, Page 22

Three drivers are suspended

By

W. R. CARSTON

! All that talk during the. i last week or two about howi I tough the stipendiary control! lis in Australia must have! rubbed off on the judicial; panel officiating at Adding-j ton Raceway on Saturday; night. • i As a consequence of. some! of their deliberations during! ‘ ■e first night of the. New Zealand Metropolitan Trotting Club’s Easter' meeting some well-known names will not be appearing on drivers’ boards around the country iin the nex' few weeks. [ Murray Rennie will not be ; needing his driving gear! ! until after Anzac Day, Neiville Benny can plan a. holiIday for himself through till ! the middle of next month and John Vincent need not turn up to drive at a race meeting for another fort-> night yet. Rennie’s five-week suspenIsion — he will be able to resume on April 26 — came as a result of an inquiry into a spectacular smash about 850 m after the start of the first of the two Air New Zealand Probationary Drivers’ Championship Finals.

ft was found that at this point in the race Glenmark Drive, which Rennie drove, had fallen while jostling with Counsellor (M. Smolensk!) for positions, and in the pile-up that followed Arion Gay, Gerry Hanover and Bocasa Lord were put out ofthe race and Elite Del and Butler Band also lost their chances.

The judicial panel’s inquiry into the incident established that Rennie had been guilty of careless driving.

Benny was suspended up_ till and including April 15 and Cyllarus. which he drove into third place in the First Three-year-old Stakes, was disqualified from the race after it was found that Cvllarus had caused interference to Invest, causing that runner to lose all chance, when improving about 700 m from the finish. Dreamy Dragon, which finished fourth, was promoted to third and Inflation was put foward from fifth to fourth. A further inquiry into the breaking of King Canute after about 200 m in the same race established (although there is no explanation in the official report of How such a conclusion was reached) that K. J. Vincent, the driver of Inf'ation, had been guilty of careless driving and "was suspended up till and including April 5. The official handout states that evidence was heard from Murray Butt. the driver of King Canute, and Vincent and this disclosed that King Canute had been racing greenly and had been tightened for room, which caused him to break. It also stated that in assessing Vincent’s penalty the committee had taken into consideration evidence given by Butt that his horse was inclined to be racing greenly at that point. The vagueness of the re= port almost suggests that, unless Vincent, in his evidence, actually pleaded guilty to causing King Canute to break, he might have got a rough deal for everything points to King Canute being the architect of his own downfall.